Andrew Harrison
Gold Circle will be hoping the old wives tale that “bad luck goes in threes,” is now a thing of the past after a trio of mishaps befell racing in KwaZulu-Natal this past fortnight.
Yesterday, Gold Circle technicians isolated the fault that led to the abandonment of the seventh race at Greyville on Tuesday evening.
While trying to load the field for the race, jockeys and handlers complained that they were being shocked.
In an interview with on-course television presenter Paul Lafferty on the night, Gold Circle’s Racing Director, Graeme Hawkins, said it happened: “All of a sudden and for no apparent reason - and we have had the electricians down there.’’
After trying in vain to load the field for the third time, “It soon became apparent that it was unfair on the horses because they were spooking from the gate because they had had a bad experience so in the interests of safety from a horses perspective it was decided to abandon that race,’’ Hawkins said.
Extensive tests were carried out on the starting pens yesterday morning to locate and rectify the problem.
The stalls electrics were checked and tested and found to be in order.
However, the cable that connects the pens to the signal cable going around the track for the start gong was then checked and found to be faulty.
This cable carries a 48 volt signal back to the control room.
The screw that retains the cable in the plug had come loose and was making contact with the body of the plug thus putting voltage on the pens.
This particular cable was isolated at Tuesday night’s meeting by removing the control relay however with the nature of the fault it did not clear the problem.
This has now been corrected and tested and all is in order.
After a lengthy delay and with all the electrics disconnected, the eighth race was started manually without incident and the odds-on favourite Northern Emperor won in a canter.
However, second favourite Jack Hobbs fell and dislodging jockey Musi Yeni. Fortunately, Yeni escaped only bruised and badly shaken.
Last week a scheduled meeting at Clairwood was abandoned after the running of the first race with the jockeys protesting a substandard racing surface.
In a statement released to Gold Circle members, the company apologised unreservedly to all racing’s stake holders and punters for the inconvenience caused by the abandonment.
“It is worrying that the affected turf at Clairwood has not satisfactorily responded to treatment as a consequence of the very dry, hot and windy conditions that prevailed for the first three weeks of January and clearly we are going to have to tackle the problem from another direction,’’ said Hawkins in the statement.
The racemeetings scheduled to take place at Clairwood for the remainder of February have been changed.
The racemeeting scheduled to take place at Clairwood this Sunday, February 5, will now take place at Greyville while Sunday, February 12 and Tuesday, February 14, will take place at Scottsville.

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Greyville Maxi Net Quartet C/Over : R 244 993 on Sunday 05 February 2012. Race 10 off at 17h35. Estimated Pool : R 1 Million.
Greyville Maxi Net Trifecta C/Over : R 5 482 on Sunday 05 February 2012. Race 10 off at 17h35. No Estimation.
Greyville Maxi Net Exacta C/Over : R 309 on Sunday 05 February 2012. Race 10 off at 17h35. No Estimation.

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David Thiselton
Trippi, who finished 23rd on the General Sires List in the USA last year having finished 20th the year before, has made a big impact during his short stay in South Africa to date, although this was not unexpected.
On J&B Met day his first South African runner the Justin Snaith-trained Agra, who had won on debut, became his first stakes winner in South Africa when easily winning the Listed Summer Juvenile Stakes and maintaining her unbeaten record, while at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Trippi finished third on aggregate behind Jet Master and Captain Al and second on average behind Jet Master at R566,667 per yearling of the 21 sold.
Charles Faull of Form Bloodstock recommended the son of End Sweep to Drakenstein Stud’s Gaynor Rupert on his racing record (he won a Grade 1 and two Grade 2s over 1400m at Belmont) and his pedigree, while his progeny had made a good start, he was throwing nice looking foals and, not least, on his “beauty”.
Rupert and her stud manager Ross Fuller went to see him in the USA and were equally impressed.
The decision to purchase him in 2008 paid almost immediate dividends as he was Florida’s leading sire by the end of the season, a title he would have won every year since had he still been standing there, and the following year he had a Royal Ascot winner in Jealous Again, who won the Grade 2 Queen Mary Stakes over 1000m.
To date Trippi has bred 33 American Stakes horses, including a champion, three Graded stakes winners, track record holders and a Breeders Cup place getter.
A few hours after Agra had won at Kenilworth on Saturday, Trippi’s four-year-old son Soaring Stocks collected US$90,000 for his connections when winning the Sunshine Millions Sprint Stakes over 1200m on dirt at Gulfstream Park in the USA.
Agra looks a splitting image of her father, so it would appear he stamps his foals.
Snaith said he would rest Agra now and would not be taking her to Durban for the Champions Season.
Trippi received an outstanding book of 120 mares last year.
This season Ross Fuller will drop him down to 100 mares although his fee of R30,000 nomination fee plus R70,000 for live foal might rise.
Trippi’s stallion companion at Drakenstein is the legendary Horse Chestnut.
Horse Chestnut, regarded by many as the greatest racehorse South Africa has ever produced, received poor support during his spell in the USA and had dropped down to half a handful of mares by the time he was brought back home.
He had gained a reputation for being infertile, but Fuller revealed that this was a false impression created by a condition he has which does not manifest if he is kept busy.
Horse Chestnut, who is an absolute gentleman in terms of temperament, was kept busy last season with over 100 mares. Another reason he didn’t get good mares in the USA is that his only start there yielded a Grade 3 win and he was probably viewed as only a Grade 3 winner, but in South Africa his famous eight length J&B Met win and his facile wins on the road to Triple Crown glory still live strong in the memory.
Even without the support he deserved Horse Chestnut sired 141 individual winners in the USA at a rate of 61% winners to runners, while he sired 28 stakes horses and 13% stakes horses to runners.

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When David Ferraris greeted Weichong Marwing on Sweet Orange as the final winner of the 2010-11 season last July after the Hong Kong Racehorse Owners Association Cup, he was looking to the colt as the silver lining on a black cloud of a season.
So there was a sense of deja vu as the South African trainer welcomed in the same horse and rider after an upset in the Mercedes-Benz Classic Mile fostered hopes that Sweet Orange could rescue this season, too, after the yard claimed its first Sha Tin turf win of the term and its sixth win in all.
“You can get so despondent here at times - I really needed this,’’ said a relieved Ferraris after a nail-biting finish to the first of the Group One four-year-old classics.
“The horses have not been running badly but have just not quite been getting there. I’ve had 17 seconds and probably half of them were nose finishes - if a few of them had won I'd been thinking things were going well, but it's hard to explain that to owners.
“And the stampede of horses from your yard in Hong Kong when things aren't going as well as everyone would like, well, it makes the wildebeests charging across the Serengetti look tame. I've never seen a place like Hong Kong where a single win like this can just lift you up, so I hope this is the turning point.’’
Since the start of this season, Sweet Orange had been dogged by bad luck at the barrier draw, so there was a certain irony in his having drawn inside this time and still had to “do it ugly’’ to outrun favourite Fay Fay by a neck after sitting posted wide without cover.
“I couldn’t believe it. In the run, I just put my head in my hands and couldn’t believe it was happening,’’ Ferraris said.
“He didn’t get any favours, that’s for sure, and he is definitely headed on to the Classic Cup and the Derby now’’
Last July, the win was the final ride of Marwing’s club jockey contract and he did not return for this season, but Ferraris turned to him to change the luck: “He’s the only one to have won on him and I knew he liked him, and I have known Weichong since he was an apprentice so he looked the right jockey to call on.’’
“When I won on the horse last year, he won like a good horse.
“He was a bit weak and needed to strengthen up, but he has had the time now and done that,’’ said Marwing, who had won the Classic Mile 10 years ago on Olympic Express before claiming the Derby on him. - South China Morning Post

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